So What Is Underground Planet?

Underground Planet is an award winning production company based in Austin Texas. From concept to completion we develop, plan, shoot and edit amazing videos for some of the most incredible bands and artist that a company like ours could ever hope to work with.

Another quick, cheap, dirty, yet pretty frikkin awesome one … or at least in my humble and never biased opinion =)

Came together really quick, loved the fact that I was doing a non-native-to-me language music video. Was a bonus that even without translation the song had such an innate catchy and upbeat quality to it. Ramjaane was effortless to work with. He’s a pro and brought the spirit of the song to every take, which as anyone who does this knows makes not just the shooting go easier but the editing as well. Same can be said of the video’s unfathomably and naturally beautiful model turned music video starlet, Zura Alvarado who jumped in at the eleventh hour to give the video it’s much welcomed splash of sexy.

For the shooting, without time to plan or any budget to speak of most of this was shot at my house. Since the most bare wall in my home happened to be behind my bed, which wasn’t moving anytime soon, the close ups of Ramjaane and Zura had to be shot with them kneeling on the bed. That footage was hyper edited and played back on my flat screen and then re-shot with either/or performing again in front of it. No green-screen was used in the making of this video =)

Number of reasons for that. Firstly, that’s how most things similar to this are usually done, who wants to do the usual? Secondly, to give the color that I wanted I was using color changing led bulbs. Would have wreaked havoc on the green-screen, which leads to the next. Thirdly, it saved tons of time. Setup took all of five minutes to plug in the bulbs and get them going, no stress, no hassle, shoot. Same with the TV, moved the lights, framed the shot to only get the screen, drop the talent in front of it, shoot. And fourthly, which is honestly pretty much a repeat of my firstly, it’s just not commonly done and gave a different look doing things in camera and practical and going back to my thirdly, saved butt-loads of time in post.

Beyond that a quick trip downtown with a wheelchair to round things out with some less eyeball straining not-so-shallow depth of field shots, an improvised ending and *poof* a music video was born.

I should also add that all the bikini’s seen in the video were provided by longtime friend of Underground Planet, Bandita Couture. If I were a chick I’d own one of every suit they make, but I’m not, and no one in the world wants to see that video. But you can check them all out here: banditacouture.com

Everything shot on a Sony PMW-F3, edited in Sony Vegas, and color correction and exploitation with Magic Bullet.

And of course I can’t close without giving huge props to my right hand man Eliazar Mendoza. As always, couldn’t do what I do by myself and certainly wouldn’t want to =)

Artist : Brandon Jenkins
Song : Down In Flames
Album: Down In Flames
Director: Raymond J. Schlogel
Production Company : Underground Planet

Another “Oldie but a goodie”, this one from 2005. Music Video for Austin/Oklahoma artist Brandon Jenkins. What’s kind of cool about this one for me is that I had had the idea of a band performing in front of steal drums that were on fire and the burning pictures years before this video, had even sketched them out. Could there have been a better song for it? This song was also my first go at Particle Illusion, felt that it needed something a bit more at the end. Thankfully there was only second degree burn during the making of this video (a PA stuck his hand inside one of the barrels to light it).

Oh, and I think this vid was filmed with a couple Canon XL1S’s and one XL1.

2005 Payne County Line New Video Of The Year: Brandon Jenkins – “Down In Flames”
2006 Payne County Line Video Of The Year : Brandon Jenkins – “Down in Flames”

To find out how Underground Planet can help you with your current or future multimedia project, please call us between 9:00 A.M. and 9:00 P.M. Central Standard Time at 512.248.9549 or Skype us. (What's Skype?)